Sven's The Man

With Thaksin Shinawatra today all but completing his takeover, City unveiled Sven Goran Eriksson as the new manager.

Although the appointment was the worst kept secret in football, it was not until two-thirty this afternoon that Eriksson finally signed a three year deal.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Eriksson faced his press critics and outlined why he chose to accept the job.

Eriksson said that the Manchester City job was one of the biggest in football and that that coupled with the ambition being shown by the new owners was enough to pursuade him.

Eriksson told those in attendance that there would be additions to the squad but did not speculate any further than that on potential transfer targets.

Eriksson also confirmed that Tord Grip would be working behind the scenes as a link between the various teams; however reports that Roland Andersson would accompany Sven as his assistant manager were found to be wide of the mark. Sven said he will now announce his assistant on Monday or Tuesday.

All in all Eriksson said all the right things despite the predictable press harrassment over his last managerial post.

Now the takeover is done and dusted and we have a manager in place let's hope we can start reporting new signings and approach the season with anticipation instead of trepadation.

The future looks a lot brighter today and especially for the sceptical amongst you take a look at Sven's club record below. Add three World Cup quarter finals, an England win percentage of 80.3% and a European Cup Runners up spot and things are looking a lot better than we could have guessed, or hoped for, just six months ago.

Swedish Cup Winners Gothenburg 1979

Swedish Cup Winners Gothenburg 1982

Swedish League Champions Gothenburg 1981

Swedish League Champions Gothenburg 1982

UEFA Cup Winners Gothenburg 1982

Portuguese League Benfica Champions 1983

Portuguese League Champions Benfica 1984

Portuguese Cup Winners Benfica 1983

Italian Cup Winners Roma 1986

Portuguese League Champions Benfica 1991

Italian Cup Winners Sampdoria 1994

Italian Cup Winners Lazio 1998

Italian Cup Winners Lazio 2000

Italian Super Cup Winners Lazio 1998

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Winners Lazio 1999

UEFA Super Cup Winners Lazio 1999

Italian League Champions Lazio 2000

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Your Comments (oldest first)

The press were a ******** embarrasment as ever. They won't let the Ingerland issue drop. Sven's problem with Ingerland was that the nation is delusional in its expectations. We are not good enough to win the World Cup .... ffs we're struggling to qualify for the Euro's on the same points as Israel. At least SGE never struggled with qualification.

I hope he does well to stick one up the English press and all of the "fans" who thought it was his fault, and not the players, that the national team flopped. Sven is one of the best club managers in Europe, and I hope he gets a fair crack of the whip.

His record stands comparison with anyone in the post-Ramsey era.
I can recall a period of time when ingerland regularly didn't qualify for championships.
The only question marks for me (apart from his personal indiscretions - a tabloid sting and some skirt perhaps) is his ability to play the game with a high and aggresive tempo, we saw with ingerland that the italian style was his game 1-0 and drop-off.

The difference between being an international manager and a club manager is that the latter you are not stuck to playing all your players from the same country. it will take time, and I for one am looking forward to who he gets as his number one, hope it is not fazakerly and who he will sign. I do even care if he works his way through the girls of bradford, ancoats and Openshaw as long as it does not interfere with his job.

He is not my favourite manager, but that is because we have a different opinion in some matters of football. He is also a weak match coach. But he is without no doubt one of the 20-25 best managers in the game. He will bring structure, calm (if he keep his zipper up) to your club. He will also attract better players than say Pearce. Even though he comes in late. I have to admitt I am impressed of his courage to take on a PL-club after how the British media treated him. I actually admire his guts in this and wish him the best of luck. As Isaksson, whom I am a great admirer of, he will be one of the top 10 goalies within a year. in the world. Could never understand how Pearce could keep him off the team. He is not Cech, but good enough. Good luck. And beat Man U, please.

Spot on Craig. You can see the undertones creeping out of sports hacks articles already. One esteemed paper this morning referred to West Ham fans as being notoriously unforgiving. Obviously looking to stir a "campaign" up of sorts. I think that's an insult to Hammers fans for starters who I've always had respect for.

The aftermath of the press conference, a couple of reporters seemed to think he had something to prove to the City fans, for me we got the best manager available. The press will watch his every move with contempt. he was a far better manager of England than the present guy. He won most of his matches and it was not his fault that England was not blessed with fit world class stikers in the world cup and the sending off of Rooney did not help. I will be happy with a top half table finish anything more will be a bonus. Bernardy Mendy mentioned this am. good attacking right wing defender.

Aamir, god was always a light blue, thats why he made the sky that colour.
Craig, Bury were thrown out of the FA for fielding an illeligble player, I think Altrincham were docked points for the same offence.

Heh-heh all round! My dread of us being held to ransom from here on got it's first signal today when Toulouse slapped a 17 million quid price tag on Elmander. Knackers to that. We need proven quality at that price. Interesting that Chelski are holding back on the mega bucks this summer while the rags go crazy. Some other clubs heading likewise. All indicators point to some serious money doing the rounds this month. Likewise players and their agents will be after big pay days. The bonus for City is we have got rid of a shedload of salaries already. Meanwhile, Aston Smithy, I hope your crystal ball is on the blink! Anyway, Frank in Hong Kong reckons it will be 3 years before we are in amongst it!

Three years is about right all things being equal. There is a lot of money going into the Prem and the standard of the league will rise. So, whilst Frank is rich, so are a fair few others. United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal will be up there over the next three years. Spurs, Villa, Newcastle too with their money. West Ham are throwing it about. Doesn't look that rosey for Everton now. Bolton will drop out before long. Then there is City. In what Rodney Marsh calls 'Tier2' with what 5 others? Birmingham may come into mega money if the HK business takes over. There there was rumours of that chap who owns Mittel Steel. World rich list number 5, makes Abromovich look small, he was rumoured to be looking to get involved. I hope not. The Prem has gone barmy. The only winners again will be the players and their leeches.

The rumour about Platt was first mooted a couple of weeks ago.
I see we are linked again with Yakubu. He was first rumoured to be on his way out of the Riverside for £3 million then there was talk of City being interested and the price was £6 million now the talk is of a ridiculous £14 MILLION !!!....what is the world coming to....

Frightening money out there. Couldn't agree more with Aston's comments. Selling clubs are going to hold out for crazy transfer fees. However, I've been told by people living and working in Thailand that Frank is nobody's fool and a very sharp businessman. I suppose he would not have rocketed from copper to owning companies without that approach. He has revealed he has an award from FIFA President Blatter for promoting football in Thailand. A clever statement when you consider the Premier League's "fit and proper person test" that fleet street keep pushing for.
We may have two cunning characters running the club and the team. This being Manchester City I am not sure the hacks now know how to proceed with their usual dismissive belittling of the club!

Alphieblues, I have faith in Sven on to pay over the odds for Yakubu, if at all. Pienaar a 25 yr old midfielder with Borussia mentioned. Headline 'Agents says Elmander staying' He does not say that at all, all the quote from this was that he has a contract with his present club and we will see what happens. Grosso, left back at Inter milan set for Lyon, apparently we have tried to make contact. If you look at bbc.co.uk football webpage and go to gossip, I fear that my effort at guessing the number of players associated with City will be way off the mark.One thing for certain is that whoever Sven brings in wont be a gamble, they will have proven skills and we will be grinning.

Well, given the inclusion of Theo Walcott into the England squad under Sven, may not the best approach by Sven be to think long, say 3 years and snap up the BEST young talent in England and around the world and see them blossom.

Sure City fans would get a kick out of seeing a young team blossom and for once not live in fear of seeing their young starlets snapped up by wealthier clubs?

Aston, he simply (easy to say)has to improve last season, He will know we need a central defender, whilst we have Richards and Onuoha I could not honestly put them at Central Defender, I would buy one. We need wingers who can cross left and right and we need a play maker. two strikers and another 7. easy. the hard bit is getting them here at the right price. Alphieblues beats me by 100 but I am not past the mark yet.

Agree Buzz, turn the super-tanker that is City around in Season 1 with the bonus of the odd goal or three. If city fans can see progression with a bit of entertainment that will be a nice start. Rome wasn't built in..etc etc

I know the majority, but the moaners and the groaners, one thing is if you get behind the team they will respond to it. What does not help appears to be the lack of atmosphere at coms, that is not the stadiums fault, it is the fans because, the atmosphere was there at the derby matches, so why not every match. I know, you do not have to tell me that 10 goals in a season do not help.

SP always said we wont rush in, we will wait until the price came down, but it never did and we were running around at the last minute to try and get someone. I think Svennis has a lot more sense, he said he was awful, with money, all he said was, that he will tell them (the board) who he wants and it is down to them to get them whoever they may be. Dead wrong about Platt.

its now been just over a week and we have the smallest squad in the premiershio and we haven signed 1 palyer since the transfer window opened when r we going to start signing players, there is all talk but no action happening

If Svennis signs the right people and we do OK, and then get into europe whilst tapping the far east market, our income should outdo our expenditue, which in the words of Mr McKawber (David Copperfield) bliss.

He lost on penalties to Portugal, he did not actually losing in the 120 minutes or so of football. The point is now he is manager of Manchester City Football Club not England. Judge him on what he can make of our team.

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